The invention relates to a locking device for a transport container of an electrically driven, rail-bound transport car with a cover which can be locked by means of a catch, and a contact device secured on the transport container in the area of the catch and actuatable by the cover for monitoring the locking state.
The monitoring of the locking state of the transport container ensues for reasons of operational security. Insofar as the cover is not securely locked, parts of the transport goods or the entire transport goods can fall out of the transport container in inclined, particularly vertical rail sections as well as in such rail sections in which the transport car is inverted. The contact device influences a drive control of the rail-bound transport car in such manner that transport cars which are not faultlessly locked cannot depart from the loading location or, respectively, upon occurrence of a corresponding disruption during the trip, are arrested at this location.
In a transport container known from the German Utility Model No. 76 12 348, the cover is bent in its seating area into an edge surface onto which the catch coupled to the transport container can be pushed; thus, the cover is secured against inadvertent opening.
If the catch is contacted by the operator only on the outer edge of the cover margin, then, although the cover is directly pressed against the front edge of the transport container and, thus, the contact device is actuated, security for a permanent locking of the cover is not guaranteed since, given a light shock or, respectively, loading of the cover by the transport goods being transported--particularly in vertical travel or in stretches in which the traveling device of the rail-bound transport car and thus the transport goods lie above the cover--the catch can slide off from the seating edge on the cover and thus the locking can be released.